Macbeth Oral Presentation Reflection

                Shakespeare’s tragic play Macbeth has many underlying connections to the true nature of human beings. Through the characters’ decisions and reactions one can see that there are indeed some basic characteristics that not a single one of them can avoid. Guilt, for instance, catches up even to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth who seem almost super-human at one point, leading a life of murder and betrayal. They seem unaffected by the fact that they were the original causes of murdering Duncan, the guards, Banquo, and Macduff’s family. At the beginning, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth don’t show any signs of guilt, but then Lady Macbeth accidentally reveals her remorse in her sleep. While sleepwalking, she screams “Out damned spot! Out I say!” when referring to her hands being covered in Duncan’s blood and not being able to get them clean (V, i, 30). This hand-washing is symbolic of Lady Macbeth trying to rid herself of the crime she committed: but she can’t. This is the point in the play when Lady Macbeth, a woman thought too cruel to care, shows remorse.  

                Macbeth is also someone who exemplifies what it means to be human when he gets caught up in a greedy struggle for power. Like every other human being, when we get a taste of something sweet; we want more. Macbeth tastes the sweetness of being King, and couldn’t help but want more power. In order to maintain and gain more power, Macbeth did virtually anything that needed to be done. By noticing how Macbeth’s thirst for power caused him to make terrible decisions, like killing and betraying his friends, we can see how power corrupts him. As he got deeper into his wrongdoings, he felt worse and worse. Macbeth even went slightly mad because of it, hallucinating so badly that he yelled “Avaunt, and quit my sight!” to the ghost of his recent victim and best friend Banquo (III, iv, 111). Macbeth gets engulfed with greed and he does anything that he thinks will get him more power: even if he is no longer gaining that same good feeling once he attains it. When Macbeth committed his first crime to become King, his momentary glory overshadowed his guilt. After that; however, he never really felt as happy, yet he continued to commit more crimes to attain more power. The only possible reason for that is that greed comes with being human.

                From working in groups I learned how wide the range of ideas are when looking at each topic we discuss. It was very interesting having an idea so definite in my mind about, for example, why Macbeth kept murdering after he became King, and then one of my group members would come along with something totally different, yet still very correct. Working in a group added more depth and insight for everyone. It really got me thinking and questioning all my thoughts and opinions.

                Overall, something important that I have learned is that cooperating and being flexible is crucial. I learned this when my group members and I noticed how busy each of our schedules were, and how it was difficult for anything to match up! We solved it in a way that still made the workload the same for everyone, but we worked on different parts at different times. It did require a lot of communication, but we did it. I am happy at how things worked out and that we managed to deal with a tough situation.

                Something that I noticed that I need to work on for next time is how to create a video so that when you play it back to a class who has no context for it, they’ll follow along easily. I think my group could have talked more slowly and clearly, and done some other technological tricks to make our movie easy to follow such as captions, slower transitions, and easier-to-distinguish characters.

                Overall I am proud of the analysis my group shared with the class. I am proud of how we all joined our ideas well to create one analysis with many perspectives and hopefully depth. It let us explain why we did the video the way we had, and hopefully that came across to our audience.

                If I were to divide a pie with the % each group member worked, I would divide it equally in three. Like I mentioned earlier, although we may have worked on different parts at different times we made sure the work load was even.  

Act Four, Scene One

            My group chose Act Four, Scene One to be the scene for our project. My understanding of the scene so far is this. Three witches open the scene standing over a cauldron, a thunder-filled, stormy night is the setting. They are making a potion while describing the many ingredients. Hecate, the Queen of the Witches, enters, praises the other three witches for their work, and leaves again. Macbeth enters and demands they answer his questions about his future/destiny. The Weird Sisters then call upon their 'masters' and they each say something different to Macbeth. Macbeth didn't even need to answer the questions, for they knew what he was thinking. In all, three apparitions occur: an armed head that warns Macbeth to beware Macduff, a bloody child that says none of woman born shall harm macbeth, and a crowned child holding a tree saying that Macbeth will never be killed, not until Birnham Wood comes to Dunsinane. From these prophecies, Macbeth believes himself virtually immortal, and he plans for the killing of Macduff's family. 
            My group chose these two EQs: What does it mean to be human? and How does power corrupt? We chose these because we thought they really exemplified some of the main themes in the play. Guilt and regret are prominent emotions in the play, and we thought we would integrate those into the first EQ. Those emotions come with being human and we were going to further explore that idea. Macbeth's downfall is really the biggest part of the play, and it is largely caused by his corruption due to power. We were going to explore that aspect, and we are planning to tie both EQs together. We believe power corrupting is largely connected to being human.

comment to conflicting...

Ilike how you found examples in the first Act ot support M's dilema. You see where he is at and how he is torn. I like that with support from the play you were able to further develop your writing. You have good insight into the situation adn you saw the role his wife played. It is interesting how our emotions impact our lives.

Macbeth Act I EQ Response

EQ: How do we deal with conflicting elements within our personalities?

               Every day people face decisions where different elements of their personalities are fighting against one another. In Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth, the main character Macbeth has conflicting ideas in his mind about the murder of King Duncan. He is very unsure of himself and can't seem to make a decision, with lots of thoughts in his head from both sides of the argument. Every person handles making these tough decisions differently, but a popular factor that often pushes the decision-maker to make their choice is someone else's persuasion. Lady Macbeth persuasivley speaks to Macbeth, convincing him to carry out the murder of The King. She shames him, asking him "Art thou afeard/ to be the same in thine own act and valour/ As though are in desire?", and Macbeth certainly starts believing her reasoning, for he does not want to be called a coward (I, i, 42-44). Like Macbeth, many people deal with conflicting elements in their personalities by listening to someone they trust; even though it is not necessarily always the right thing to do.